The Pickering Manuscript 2

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This volume of ten poems in Blake's hand is the unique source for seven of his poetic works, including "Auguries of Innocence."

A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.

The manuscript is named for a previous owner, B. M. Pickering, who acquired it in 1866 and published it for the first time that year. The poems probably date from about 1801 to 1804. As a "fair copy," it shows that Blake had copied all of the poems into a neat form with few corrections. Based on its paper stock and internal references, the manuscript has been dated to about 1807.

About this exhibition:

William Blake (1757–1827) occupies a unique place in the history of Western art. His creativity included both the visual and literary arts. In his lifetime he was best known as an engraver; now he is also recognized for his innovative poetry, printmaking, and painting. Blake's keen perception of the political and social climate found expression throughout his work. His strong sense of independence is evident in the complex mythology that he constructed in response to the age of revolution.

Blake was already recognized as an engraver at age twenty-five, when his first volume of poems appeared. At thirty-three, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he audaciously claimed that his birth had marked the origin of a "new heaven" in which his own art would exemplify the creativity prefigured by Milton and Michelangelo. By that time, Blake, in one of his most productive periods, had already produced Songs of Innocence and was at work on a series of illuminated books. In 1818 he met John Linnell, a young painter and engraver, through whom a group of young artists became Blake's followers. Calling themselves the Ancients, they helped perpetuate Blake's influence for generations.

The Morgan's Blake collection—one of this country's most distinguished—began with purchases as early as 1899 by Pierpont Morgan. During the tenure of Charles Ryskamp, director from 1969 to 1986, major gifts almost doubled the size of its Blake holdings. In recent years Ryskamp's own gifts of engravings, letters, and related materials have significantly enriched its scholarly resources.

Transcription:

The one was Clothd in flames of fire The other Clothd in iron wire The other Clothd in tears & sighs Dazling bright before my Eyes They bore a Net of Golden twine To hang upon the Branches fine Pitying I wept to see the woe That Love & Beauty undergo To be consumd in burning Fires And in ungratified Desires And in tears clothd Night & day Melted all my Soul away When they saw my Tears a Smile That did Heaven itself beguile Bore the Golden Net aloft As on downy Pinions soft Over the Morning of my Day Underneath the Net I stray Now intreating Burning Fire Now intreating Iron Wire Now intreating Tears & Sighs O when will the morning rise

The Mental Traveller

I traveld thro' a Land of Men A Land of Men & Women too And heard & saw such dreadful things As cold Earth wanderers never knew

For there the Babe is born in joy That was begotten in dire woe

Just as we Reap in joy the fruit Which we in bitter tears did sow

And if the Babe is born a Boy He's given to a Woman Old Who nails him down upon a rock Catches his Shrieks in Cups of gold

She binds iron thorns around his head She pierces both his hands & feet She cuts his heart out at his side To make it feel both cold & heat

Her fingers number every Nerve just as a Miser counts his gold She lives upon his shrieks & cries And She grows young as he grows old

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The programs of The Morgan Library & Museum are made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.